Hello Everybody!
This week has been really busy but went well. At the beginning of this week I got to go on exchanges with the
zone leaders and be in English work for a day. We met a really
interesting guy named Brad. He knew the Bible really well but
misquoted a lot of scriptures and doesn't really understand exactly
what all the scriptures mean. He told us he was confused about how he
could find out if the Book of Mormon is true or not. He doesn't
believe that getting a spiritual confirmation/answer through the Holy
Ghost would be good enough for him. He thinks that God would give us a
way that is a lot more sure to find out (ironically because he would
deny an answer that God sends directly to him through the Holy Ghost).
He thinks the only way to find our if a book is true is by looking
at all the prophecies the person who wrote it gave, and find out if
they've all been fulfilled. It was a really interesting lesson because
the guy really wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true but he's
stuck in his ways and doesn't understand the scriptures so won't do what
he ought to do to find out for himself.
We found a couple really cool new investigators this week. One's
name is Lemuel. He is a pastor at a church his dad founded called "The
Church of Jesus Christ in the Americas". When we found all this out and
heard his name we were convinced that he was destined to get baptized
and there was no way it could all be a coincidence. He had questions
about baptisms for the dead, how he could know if the Book of Mormon is
true, and other questions about the Godhead. He is only 23 and
knows a lot but also misinterprets the scriptures and is confused about a couple things. We're really excited to go back and
teach him and see if he's willing to look to God for more
understanding. We also found a man named Jesus who (2 years ago) decided
to start reading the Bible and living it's teachings and has a lot of
faith. He still feels like there's something missing in his life and we
told him he could find that through the fullness of the gospel restored
on the earth today. We haven't taught him very much but his sister and
her family have been to church twice and at least
the kids really liked it. We"ll see where that goes.
We got a call early in the morning this week from the mother of a
recent convert who told us her daughter had been run over by a car the
night before and had been in the hospital. We rushed over there only to
be greeted by an angry teenager who was really sore and didn't want us
to be there. It turned out that she had been hit by a car while
crossing a cross walk and fell over and scraped her side and back but
besides that she was fine. We were relieved about all that.
The baptism of Jovita and Juan went really well. Their son (who
was baptized just under a year ago) flew in from Florida to baptize his
mom and dad, and also confirm them the next day. Jovita's sister also flew
out from Florida, and her brother's family as well as her parents came
to see everything. There were a lot of people at the baptism and it
went well. The son didn't speak Spanish very well and had never
baptized/confirmed anyone before so we spent a lot of time teaching him
before the day of the baptism and also whispering the words to him while
he was performing the ordinances. Elder Guzman and Elder Mata came to see the baptism as well so it was good to see them again. Juan
and Jovita are really solid and it was a great weekend for them.
Saturday night we had a big ward activity talent show right after
the baptism. There was a lot of really good food there, and a lot of
cool talents. A lot of less active members and
investigators came and it was a big success. A lot of investigators came to church on Sunday as well. For dinner we drove about an
hour away into the "Lodi Hills" which are foothills of the mountains in
California. It looked a lot like Black Forest/Monument and reminded me of home. It was also colder up there and a lot of fun to be out in
nature.
I'll say a little bit more about my companion too. Elder Martinez
was born in Arizona but grew up in Puebla, Mexico until he was 14. He
is a really good soccer player and also a good runner. He's a really
funny guy and we get along really well. His family has been members
their whole lives. He has been out on his mission about 15 months. He
studied business management at ASU before coming on his mission but will
probably go to BYU afterwards.
That's all I've got for this week. It's getting cooler here, hopefully it's not too cold out there.
Les Quiero,
-Elder Gaskill
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